Don't blame yourself...
by random echo
Summary: This has 2 parts, part two in the works. Claire is in the hospital, Sherry blames herself, Chris blames everyone, several characters battle with their emotions, afraid to lose Claire.


Authors notes: Alright, first off, don't think I hate Claire. She's my favorite character. Anyway, in part two, she comes back. Now you ask me was I very depressed when I wrote this, or something to the relation. Nope, my brothers sick, so we were in the hospital, and I got a strange idea for it. That, and I was bored. This is part one of two. The song is by lonestar I'm already there. I've never listened to them, but the lyrics are right, anyway, this was recommended by my friends brother, so sorry if anyone also has this song...

'I'm already there

Take a look around 

I'm the sunshine in your hair 

I'm the shadow on the ground 

I'm the whisper in the wind

I'm your imaginary friend 

And I know I'm in your prayers 

Oh I'm already there'

-Lonestar, I'm already there.

Chris closed his eyes for a second, then stepped toward the door. The atmosphere of the hospital was unexplainable. There was something in the pit of his stomach that was always doing flip flops, because you knew something was wrong.

He didn't want to believe it, but believed it still. Chris only had laid a hand on the knob, until the nurse quickly grabbed his shoulder, restraining him from going any farther. 

The women scanned him, and the party behind him.

"You can't go in there. One of you might disconnect the life support wires. Its better you stay out here. She's unresponsive anyway." The nurse tensed, as Chris peeked through the window. 

In the room, the only light was from the window, that reflected a baby blue. Although it went down in the shape of a rectangle, her face still hidden in shadows.

Chris gazed closer. Behind the bed by the wall, was the curtain that was already pulled open. The only noise in the room was the beeping of the life support machine, which was already going slow, and the reading low.

He could just make out the limp figure of a younger women, lying back on the bed. There were blood machines attached to her hand, with blood still flowing through the tube, which was located beside the curtains, and window. The women looked young, breathing tubes lined on her face.

Chris stared at the motionless body a second more, then turned back to Jill. The nurse at this time, let go of his shoulder, and stood back. Chris had an even more unexplainable look on his face. Almost a hurt expression, worried, and determined. With no more words, Chris turned around, and began to take off in the other direction, walking even quicker then the others. Jill was about to take off after him, as he darted down the steps, but Barry restrained her from doing so.

"He just needs some time alone. For now..." Barry silenced himself, and glanced over at the rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy who was barely keeping up, and had his eyes pasted on the ground. 

It was a tough time for all the patients friend. Barry kept his mouth shut, at this one. Instead of him talking, Leon spoke up.

"So...what are we going to do with Sherry?" Leon barely mouthed.

Jill also stopped, and turned around. 

"The only thing we can do is talk to her. She's blaming herself for some reason. Sherry's waiting in the waiting room downstairs." Jill added to their conversation. 

Leon nodded, and the three of them took off down the steps.

The nurse watched them leave, and waited a moment until there footsteps disappeared in the distance. The nurse, Margaret, picked up the file, and headed behind the counter that was close by. A man, about the age of forty's was typing away on the computer. Margaret dropped the file next to him.

"Who's this for?" The doctor asked, noticing the file.

"Claire Redfield. Poor child's only 19... has no family either. Only her brother that came by a second ago." Margaret said shuffling to her chair, and collapsed down into her lab chair with a sigh.

The doctor picked up the papers, and scanned them.

"Eternal injuries, one broken rib, gash across her forehead... someone really did a number on her. Do you know what happened?"

Margaret remained silent for a second, watching the door to Claire's room.

"Nope, no idea. There was a twelve year old blond that called her in. She was really damaged even by then. The girl only told us she was injured before, had a little car race, or something to the sort, and collapsed."

The doctor nodded, and closed the file, then slid it into a folder.

"Where are they now?"

"Downstairs with the girl. This women, Claire Redfield, had a whole history of coming in with injuries, she's been to wild I guess. Hopefully she can come through this one...I don't know how much more her brother can take..."

**********

Leon went in front of the other two, walking faster to the waiting room. He swung open the door. Just as he expected, the twelve year old blond, Sherry, wearing her favorite sailor outfit sat on one of the chairs, her nose buried deep in a magazine. 

Still, he doubted she was reading it. Leon sat down on the empty seat next to her, waiting for her to say something. When she didn't, he spoke.

"Sherry, are you alright?" Probably a dumb question, because he already knew the answer, but it did get her to glance up from the magazine she was looking at.

He eyes were redden a bit from crying, and maybe just staying up. The entire room was almost empty, it was fading into evening. 

Sherry glanced at him, a mixture of sadness in her eyes, then dropped the magazine, and looked away. 

Leon put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her nerves, and to his surprise, she didn't brush it away, just sat there, silently. 

Then moving her lips, as if to say something, but no sound came out. Then in a weak voice she did say something. More of a question. 

"Claire'll be alright, won't she?" Sherry asked quietly. 

Leon shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He'd never lie to Sherry, and right now wanted to. Just couldn't. Leon wasn't sure what would happen to Claire himself, and surely didn't want anything to.

Claire was like the sister he never had, or his girlfriend.

He shared a mysterious bond with Sherry, and didn't want to see any of them hurt. 

Leon wrapped an arm around her, and gave a friendly hug.

"I don't know, but I sure do hope so."

The two of them sat there. Together, but alone at the same time. Claire was almost part of there little unrelated family. Ever since she arrived back from Antarctic she spent endless time with Sherry and Leon. Claire would say, they were her friends that were always there for her, and she didn't know how much she'd miss them, because she nearly died, and wanted to 

'Take happy memories with me now, if I'm no alive tomorrow to make any...'(Sorry if that sounds familiar!)

Sherry though had haunting memories.

~*~

It was earlier in the morning. Sherry had to go to middle school, and woke up at 6:00am sharp to get ready. Claire just getting her new motorcycle offered Sherry a ride. Sherry had gladly excepted. Her school didn't start until 8:30 so they cruised around. 

Claire pointed out some familiar places out to Sherry. 

'That over there was the rode I'd always take to go to collage.' Claire would say, pointing out to a road that disappeared far off in the distance. 

There was one point, that stopped the fun, and began to scare her. Claire pulled over on the side of the deserted road for a second. She seemed to be holding her stomach.

'Are you alright Claire. I mean it, if your hurt we have to go to the hospital now!' Sherry would say. 

Claire shook her head, and got back on the bike.

'No way, I'm fine, just a little shaken from Antarctica, nothing for you to be worried about. Besides, Umbrella spies could be anywhere.' Claire reassured her, in her best impression of a cheerful voice. 

Sherry bought it, and they turned around, and went speeding down the road toward Sherry's school. Passing the old bridge that went over a river, Claire slowed watching her rearview mirror.

When Sherry asked if everything was alright, Claire answered:

'Fine, just that black van has been following us from the last intersection. Sherry, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a short detour to get them off our tail.' Where her exact words.

Sherry nodded in agreement, and they took the next path, which wasn't even a road. This probably was the first mistake they made. 

The second one was, Claire slowed down, waiting for them to pass. After a few seconds, the road remained empty. Claire stopped the bike, and began to go over the bushes, to see. 

The next thing Sherry knew is a scream, then gun shots. Claire jumped back onto the bike, and roared up the engine. Behind her Sherry could hear the screeching of a car speeding down after them. A few men stuck their head out of the car, and opened fire. Claire dodged a few shots, and began to hit the exclamation even more. After a good 20 feet in front of them, Claire turned to Sherry. 

'Sherry, jump into the gully, they won't see you there. Then they'll keep chasing me.' Sherry was about to protest, when Claire slowed the bike, and Sherry jumped into the gully, that was shaded by trees, and a puddle of mud on the ground. The only thing next Sherry remembered, was the cars speeding up after Claire, she was even running to keep up with them. Only a few feet ahead, one of the agents made a direct shot to her tire, which made the motorcycle sped out of control. Claire slammed on the breaks but it was a second to late, the motorcycle did a nearly fatal crash into the gully. The cars stopped as they watched the wreckage burn, and turned around. Sherry waited until they were far away, until she jumped from her hiding space, over to Claire. Avoiding the flames, Sherry dug through the mud, and pulled Claire out, up onto the path. Claire was fortunately still breathing, but she had a gash across her head, cause by a piece of flying metal. Sherry panicked, she could run off to find a phone, but risk losing her way, or having those agents come back. Or she could carry Claire with her, but by the time, she got to a phone it might already be to late. It was luckily for her, a farmer was heading down that path, and saw the flames, so decided to pull over. Then he called the police. 

That's where they were. The nurse had called her only relative Chris.

~*~

Sherry sighed, and stared at the ground.

"I wish I could have done something more." Sherry muttered to herself more then anyone else. 

Although Leon overheard her, and patted her back.

"Don't worry, she's a Redfield, and Redfield's don't go down easy."

Sherry nodded, and gave a watery smile.

Jill, and Barry watched from outside the door, then took a few steps away, not wanting to interrupt the others conversation. 

"So Jill, do you think it was really Umbrella agents?" Barry asked, leaning against the wall. 

Jill nodded,

"Well, who else could it be. Umbrella's been after her ass ever since that Antarctica incident. Maybe they just noticed her motorcycle, and took off after-"

She was cut off.

"That motorcycle was new, they couldn't have recognized it." Barry added.

Jill sighed, and leaned onto the wall across from him.

"Then I don't know, but I'm sure Chris is not taking this easy. He'll find one way or another to blame himself."

Jill exited the hospital without another word, jumped in her car, and headed off to find Chris.

****

Chris sped down the road, his hands wrapped tightly around the wheel, like it could come off any moment. He wasn't sure where he was heading to, only had to take off. His mind was consumed by the health of Claire. It was all he had left. 

Surely Chris hadn't heard the whole story, but the part about Umbrella pissed him off the most. Chris made a quick turn to the left, his tires screeching. 

"Umbrella..." He muttered under his breath. in disgust. 

They took away some of his greatest friends, and more. Now they tried to kill Claire.

Anger build up inside of him, as he cut off a blue car. 

They honked their horn after him, but he ignored it.

Chris still wondered if it was partly Claire's fault. For doing something so reckless when she knew Umbrella was after them. Both Sherry, and her could have been killed. Good reasons, but Chris would never blame his sister for something like this. It wasn't her fault of what Umbrella did, or didn't do. 

In a way, his fault. For never calling his sister, so then she had to go looking for him in Raccoon, and at the Umbrella lab facility.

Still, he couldn't keep thinking about blaming someone, only Claire had to get better. She just couldn't die on him, he wouldn't know what to do. Chris slowed his path, and pulled into a nearby diner. 

Waiting in the car for a bit, he secured his gun into his jacket, just in case those wack cases tried anything on him. Walking into the place, Chris waited a bit, until the three people before him were served. Finally at his turn the waiter asked.

"How many sir?" 

Chris was ready to say one, but a female voice spoke for him.

"Two please." Chris turned around to see Jill.

They followed the waiter, and sat down.

"What will you be having to drink?" He asked.

Jill spoke up first.

"Just a diet coke please." She said.

"I'll have a coffee." Chris answered, and watched the waiter disappear into the kitchens.

Then he turned to Jill.

"So?" Jill remained silent for a moment.

Most likely thinking of what she should say...

Alright, that was part one, of two.

Please Review, and tell me what you think.


End file.
